U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks blocked the Texas fetal burial rule for a second time on Friday by indefinitely prohibiting the state from implementing it.
According to Judge Sparks, the new regulation was far too vague and offered no benefit to the public.
From the Associated Press:
In issuing a preliminary injunction that indefinitely prohibits Texas from enforcing the rule, Sparks said the new standards were vague, inviting interpretations that would allow state health officials "to exercise arbitrary, and potentially discriminatory, enforcement on an issue connected to abortion and therefore sensitive and hotly contested."
The burdensome business regulation, a thing that conservatives allegedly hate, would have forced healthcare providers to pay for the cremation or burial of any fetal remains or fetal tissue even if it were little more than a zygote.
Texas attorney general and smirking schmuck Ken Paxton is appealing the ruling, of course, but I'm actually skeptical that the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will side with the state of Texas. The state's lack of explanation for how the regulation will be enforced and paid for was a major obstacle in the lower district court.
As you may recall, state officials previously floated the idea of burying fetuses in mass graves to cut costs, which is likely to be one of the most batshit sentences you'll read today. They said this in court.
State regulators and officials can't say much with any certainty because the state legislature didn't include any mechanisms for enforcing or paying for it.